In Past Show

About Yang Zhenzhong

Yang Zhenzhong believes “life itself is in a state of constant repetition” and, accordingly, repetition is a defining theme of his practice. For I Will Die (2007), Yang enlisted ordinary people to pronounce the titular phrase on camera in different languages, playing the loops in simultaneous video projections. The work exemplifies the air of bold straightforwardness for which Yang is known across his work in photography, video, performance, sculpture, and installation. Whether stripping massage chairs of their upholstery, appropriating works by other famous artists, planting a fake bus stop in a historic town, or installing synchronized videos of a woman huffing and puffing to blow away a Shanghai street, Yang relies on everyday objects and familiar scenes to express profound ideas. “I feel that if you deal with individual experience on a certain level it becomes universal experience,” he explains.